NOIDA: Riot police on Sunday patrolled
Noida
after four days of clashes with residents opposed to a change in
administration.
Media reports, 30 people have been injured.
Police, dressed in riot gear are moving
through the streets of Noida, where several multinational companies have their
headquarters. Train services have been affected as protesters are sitting on
the tracks
preventing
movement of traffic
.
Since Wednesday, mobs throwing stones,
setting up roadblocks and torching cars, have battled with police, who have
arrested at least 24 people, reports said.
The anger was sparked by an announcement
that nine districts, including Noida andÂ
Greater Noida
,
were to be "denotified" - a move which would see resources being
withdrawn from the area.
According to the government, administrative
machinery - police and bureaucracy -required to maintain the nine districts
formed in 1997 were a drain on the resources of the state.
But critics said the move was merely aimed
at reversing policies of the earlier administration headed by former chief
minister Mayawati, arch rival of incumbent Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Residents and traders in the nine
districts, spread across Uttar Pradesh, were
up in arms
against the move as vital documents including licences issued by the
administrations in the nine districts now stood invalid, reports said.
On Saturday, hundreds of demonstrators,
shouting slogans against Yadav, clashed with police at a number of places in Noida,
media reports said.
Police fired shots in the air after being
attacked by mobs, the reports said. Shops and other businesses remained closed
and schools shut their doors and told children to stay home.
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